My heart hammered a frantic rhythm against my ribs. This should be easy, right? All I had to do was utter a single lie, push him away, and watch him walk out of my life. Freedom from this deception that is found myself in awaited me on the other side of that lie. But as I stared into Alexander's hopeful eyes, the words caught in my throat, a tangled mess of emotions rendering me speechless.
He brushed a stray tear from my cheek, his touch sending a jolt through me. "Please," he pleaded, his voice husky with a vulnerability that tugged at my heartstrings. "Just say it. If you don't love me, then..."
The thought of him marrying Jamila, of him living a life devoid of love, was a torment I couldn't bear. But the alternative–a future with him, that would not even be possible because it would require me to continue to lie to him, plus there was the fact that his family would never allow it was even more harrowing.